Horsehair sporran

[BThomHie]

I have recently bought a Montrose doublet for the occasional over the top evening. I am going to buy a horse hair sporran to wear with it. One or the possibilities is a a Seaforth Highlander with the characteristic 5 tassels and regimental badge. I sadly have never had the opportunity to serve with these gallant men. Is it appropriate for me to wear this sporran with the regiment insignia? If not would it be acceptable to change the emblem to a generic Scottish symbol?
Opinions please

[Downunder Kilt]

By all means wear the sporran but, as you have already thought about, yes change out the badge

[OC Richard]

a Seaforth Highlander with the characteristic 5 tassels and regimental badge.

This is puzzling, because the sporrans of The Seaforth Highlanders had two tassels. The sporrans of The Black Watch have five.

Seaforth Highlanders Other Ranks' sporran



Black Watch Other Ranks' sporran

[BThomHie]

hmmm... misinformation on ebay?
any advice on a replacement badge source?

[PiperOfThePlains]

You know, IMHO, it shouldn't be too hard to remove the badge and add a cap badge. You'd have a wide range of options. Of course, it wouldn't be entirely permanent, but it should do the trick!

[OC Richard]

hmmm... misinformation on ebay?
any advice on a replacement badge source?

Could you link to the thing under discussion? Hard to know without seeing something.

But yes, things are incorrectly described on Ebay all the time. The most common thing is to see ordinary civilian items described as military; nearly always "military officer's ________ " or even "military officer's Boer War ______ " (for some reason the fanciful Ebay sellers love the Boer War).

About badges, one thing to keep in mind is that several of the military sporran badges and collar badges from famous Highland regiments were also widely used on civilian items.

With sporrans, the same firms made sporrans for the military and for the civilian market, often using the same components, even the same badges oftentimes (St Andrew, deer's head, rampant lion, etc) as some of the regiments. It takes a familiarity with the various military sporrans to discern what some vintage thing on Ebay might be, and it's very tricky because there were a large number of Territorial and Volunteer battalions which oftentimes had their own odd sporran patterns.

Here's a current Ebay example



listed as a "Black Watch military sporran" but at the same time a "youth sporran". It's obviously an ordinary civilian youth sporran, but it happens to have a St Andrew badge, which might well be original.

[BThomHie]

I'm not sure how to set up the link between ebay and here for the pic. When the sporran arrives I will post picture. thx for the help and interest.

[OC Richard]

I'm not sure how to set up the link between ebay and here for the pic.

Right click on the photo, go down and (left) click on 'properties', copy the link, which for the photo above looks like this

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTYwMFgxMjAw/z/06YAAOxyUrZS7UDq/$_12.JPG

and paste it to a reply here, but you have to add [img] at the front and [/img] at the end for the image to appear.

[BThomHie]

http://imgthumbs4.ebaystatic.com/d/l...61455_2.jpgimg

the sporran arrived yesterday. it appears to be a generic pipe band sporran complete w/ white plastic strap.
the cantle is crome on brass w/ a wear on the back L of the arch
the stag head is a low quality chrome casting
and the metal cone on the tassles seems to have a uniform interior weld w/ chrome .
not the lucky find artifact but a fair price for what it is.
reguarding care...what do i wash the long hair with to get it to relax & hang straight? there is a "storage" wave in the lower 1/3
thx

[OC Richard]

I hang my horsehair sporrans so that the hair hangs straight down, gravity helping straighten it over time.

I take a wire coathanger and cut it with wire clippers to get two short things, which I bend around in a certain way to support the sporran through the leather loops that the strap goes through.

My computer is being wonky right now and I can't go to that link to see you sporran. I'll try later.